It is my honor to finally be able to make a contribution to our Ghost Recon family in the form of a new mod. I have been working on this "swiftly, silently, and invisibly" for many years, and now that the time has come for my mod to see the light of day, I am overjoyed to be able to give something back at last.

Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed is my tribute to the Ghost Recon community. The mod's aspiration is to honor the makers and fans of this great game, to be a token of appreciation for everyone who helped to expand the ever-growing Ghost Recon universe over the years, with their support, ideas, enthusiasm, and sociability. All of you made our beloved game the timeless classic it is today.

Enjoy the mod!

Apex

Quote

Introduction

Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed offers a ruthlessly unforgiving tactical FPS experience by maximizing realism in every aspect of the game. Weapons match their real-life counterparts in accuracy, effectiveness, and handling. AI displays terrifying acumen in trying to outmaneuver you. Missions take place in open-world locations and are entirely nonlinear, with a minimum of scripted events and utmost randomization, for infinite replayability.

Heroes Unleashed pushes tactical realism to the extreme, setting it light years apart from anything you are accustomed to in today’s ubiquitous action shooters. One shot can kill. There is no magical healing, fantasy gear, sci-fi enemy markers, handholding, or guide towards certain victory. It is just you and your squad, on your own behind enemy lines, with caution as your best bet to survive.

Whether you choose to play online or alone, with friends or AI, Ghost Recon: Heroes Unleashed delivers a rivetingly realistic squad-based military combat you won’t find anywhere else.

• Campaign missions, single missions, and game types are re-scripted
to improve realism, e.g. no reinforcements spawn out of thin air right
in front of you, enemy locations vary each time a mission or game is
played, there are no fixed (and subsequently predictable) scripted
events in order to realistically increase randomness, and so on.

• Game scripts now dynamically adjust the number of AI enemies and
their placement on each map, depending on a map's size and where the
player's (often randomized) starting location will be, in order to
avoid the unrealistic situation of having you (and your squad) infil
in close proximity of hostile forces.

• AI awareness of your presence now takes such things as dead bodies
laying around into account, so enemies will ultimately realize that
they are under attack, if they repeatedly stumble upon dead comrades.
Frequently being seen (or heard) by an opponent will eventually also
spread the news of your arrival, leading to increased enemy alertness.

• New game type scripting allows for dynamic weather conditions, i.e.
by continuously adjusting randomized precipitation intensity on maps
with rain or snow (within realistic parameters for map environment).
Full-scale missions allow for weather conditions to change even more
drastically over time, so rain could slowly turn into a blizzard, or
the weather may improve and clear up altogether, etc.

• Mission environment settings (fog range, color, opacity, as well as
rendering distances etc.) are systematically adjusted and fine tuned
for the most realistic and thereby most immersive visual appearance.

• Spotting distances for AI characters are corrected on all maps and
no longer provide players or their opponents with an unfair advantage.
Just as in reality - if you can see the enemy, they can see you, too.

• All mission locations displayed during briefings are corrected and
shown with proper coordinates on new world maps covering the entire
planet. Local mission times displayed during briefings now correctly
correspond to the visual environment of their respective map, namely
light conditions, position of the sun, direction of shadows etc.

• Textures are reviewed one-by-one for potential visual inadequacies
and touched-up or, if necessary, recreated or replaced, to achieve the
highest possible level of visual realism (thousands of high-resolution
textures have been implemented already, but this is an ongoing process
that will advance further with each update of the mod).

• AI characters are adjusted to exhibit more realistic behavior and
capabilities, e.g. on the default "realism" tier there are no longer
any enemies with super-human weapon accuracy to shoot the wings off a
fly at a distance of hundreds of meters with a standard-issue assault
rifle, and your AI team mates display much improved combat skills.

• Enemies carry a much wider and more authentic range of weapons and
equipment (non-player characters may now be equipped from a choice of
several thousand uniquely different equipment kits).

• Non-player characters will now default to firing their weapons in
either full-auto or burst mode (provided that their weapon offers the
corresponding trigger groups) to further alleviate their occasional
display of unrealistically high shooting accuracy.

• Additional new player, enemy, and noncombatant characters provide
a more varied and thereby more realistic and immersive experience
(in total, there are now more than 1,000 individual characters).

• Every character features individual appearance (skins) including
facial features, which means that you will no longer encounter two
characters looking the same (over 1,000 individual faces and skins).

• New weapons and vehicles are added for a broader and more realistic
variety of military materiel encountered in the field (more than 400
authentic weapons and equipment items, over 100 different vehicles).

• Vehicle characteristics are adjusted for more realistic behavior.
Their weapons correspond to real-world armaments with realistic weapon
effectiveness, and vehicle handling allows for realistic movement.

• Individual weapon handling is adjusted for realistic weapon control,
e.g. smaller lighter handguns like pistols, SMG's, etc. now feel a lot
more compact, allowing for much quicker target acquisition than larger
and heavier firearms like e.g. assault and battle rifles. Very bulky
or heavy weapons, like e.g. anti-materiel rifles and general purpose
machine guns, now require the shooter to crouch or even assume a prone
position for their full accuracy potential. Shooting during slow and
deliberate movement is facilitated to more realistic levels, overall.

• Manual (single shot) rate of fire of all handguns is now limited to
slightly more authentic levels, meaning that e.g. frantically clicking
the mouse button will produce a less ridiculous ROF, and AI characters
can no longer shoot e.g. bolt action sniper rifles at 300 rpm. Fully
realistic single shot ROF cannot be implemented, because the game ties
muzzle flash duration to current ROF (hard-coded), which in turn would
render its animation even more immersion-breakingly unrealistic.

• The muzzle flash of each weapon more closely matches its real-life
size and appearance with corresponding firearms and ammunition types.

• All weapons now feature authentic firing sounds which also exactly
reflect the rate of fire for each weapon. For example, when you fire
an assault rifle with an effective ROF of 750 rounds per minute at
full auto, you hear a staccato with intervals of exactly 0.08 seconds.

• Weapon reloading sounds are reworked (within the severe limitations
hard-coded in the game) to be a bit more realistic than the defaults.

• Weapon models are more detailed and exhibit more authentic overall
appearance. Every single weapon texture has been manually reworked
and refined for a perfect finish providing realistic visual features.

• Weapon optics are represented with more authentic visual appearance
based on their real-life reticles. Reticle textures have been created
according to the exact design of their real-world counterparts. Only
weapons with iron sights retain symbolic default reticles.

• Weapon scopes, night vision goggles, binoculars, rangefinders, and
spotting scopes more closely match the appearance, field of view, and
visual characteristics of their real-life counterparts.

• HUD, command map, and compass / threat indicator are changed, with
some elements removed, for a cleaner and less obtrusive look, and to
allow a less restricted field of view. Direction of incoming fire and
enemy positions are no longer shown to improve realism and suspense.
Hostiles in close proximity (within 40 meters) are still displayed via
nondirectional threat indicator (optional).

• NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and vehicles are no longer shown on the
command map, and sensors are removed from the equipment selection to
facilitate more realistic tactical play.

• Nonessential UI elements like symbolic animations representing e.g.
reloading, weapon switching, or opening doors, are removed to limit
distraction and to maintain a higher level of realism and immersion.

• Some audio-visual feedback (e.g. on-screen text messages and voice
confirmation of kills) is removed / randomized to limit diversion,
raise immersion, and to improve overall suspense and realism (e.g.
without kill confirmation you can never be sure whether a distant
threat has been eliminated unless you confirm the kill yourself).

• In-mission text chat functionality is severely limited, and other
text feedback during missions is kept to a bare minimum, for a further
increase in realism and immersion, through even less of those annoying
superfluous visual distractions.

• Rangefinders are no longer available by default to improve realism
in unit equipment (in real life not every soldier carries an AN/GVS-5
laser rangefinder). The corresponding keyboard shortcut is renamed
and now simply holsters your weapon. Rangefinders are still available
via the equipment selection menu.

• The body damage model provides more authentic wound lethality (e.g.
shots to the head are more likely to kill, while hitting arms, legs or
abdomen has a higher probability to result in non-lethal wounds) and
body armor more closely reflects real-life NIJ Standard 0101.04 Type I,
II, and IIIA armor levels, e.g. characters wearing Type IIIA ballistic
resistant vests (like most support experts) enjoy at least single hit
chest protection against high-velocity 9mm FMJ RN and similar threats.

This may sound like relatively weak body armor for special forces, but
considering that all game characters (including non-player actors like
civilians, rebels, militia, regular soldiers from various more or less
developed countries) share the same damage model (that allows for only
three different types of body armor to be defined), its setup is bound
to be a compromise, with this being the most realistic one, overall.

• Body armor is adjusted for each individual in-game character, e.g.
an irregular wearing a t-shirt no longer exhibits any unusual bullet
resistance, while a soldier with a bulky vest and / or combat uniform
is very likely to carry some body armor. In general, the bulkier the
vest / uniform a character wears, the higher the type of body armor.

• Combat loadout is altered to realistic levels for mission parameters
and corresponds to Special Forces unit agility requirements, with TAT
ABL and equipment weight approximating FORSCOM regulations to maintain
total fighting load of up to 25 kg wherever possible. Real-life load
distribution across squad members (e.g. chain-linked LMG ammunition,
anti-materiel sniper rifle rounds etc.) is taken into account through
compromising individual load to compensate for simulation limitations.

• Military units present in the game use authentic materiel fielded by
their real-life counterparts, meaning all NPC and player characters in
both single player and multiplayer mode feature a true-to-life range
of authentic weapons, vehicles, and other equipment.

• Overlap in equipment kits between soldier classes is increased (e.g.
anti-armor weapons can be found in non-demolitions kits etc.) for more
realistic unit variety and flexibility, extending tactical options in
team setup, i.e. team size and composition.

• Original (and obsolete) U.S. Army BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) and DCU
(Desert Camouflage Uniform) are replaced with correct contemporary ACU
(Army Combat Uniform) with UCP (Universal Camouflage Pattern) of 2008,
the year in which the game's campaign is taking place. However, some
individual characters, e.g. several unlockable Specialists retain the
classic style BDU / DCU, and the old uniforms are still available via
multiplayer restrictions, as well as through add-on mods included in
the "XTRAS" folder located within the mod's main folder (please see
the BONUS CONTENT section of this document for details).

• The sniper class now offers two different characters in distinctive
roles: A sniper with ghillie suit camouflage for solitary work and
rural surroundings, and a marksman with standard issue uniform for
teamwork and in urban environments to avoid the unrealistic employment
of ghillie-suited snipers in team roles or urban areas, and to reflect
real-world distinction of sniper and designated marksman roles.

• All soldier classes feature additional character skins to provide
more realistic varied team selection, e.g. so not all riflemen in your
team look almost exactly alike, anymore (there are now more than 1,500
different textures for over 250 individual player team characters).

• Difficulty tiers and IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) settings have been
renamed to underline their significant effect on simulation realism.

• Many other small technical and cosmetic fixes and improvements are
implemented to maximize authenticity and realism throughout.

GAMEPLAY

• The mod's campaign contains all missions of Ghost Recon and both
official expansion packs combined into a trilogy campaign sequence,
featuring all Specialists (except Desert-Siege-only Jodit Haile) as
unlockable characters, each with appropriate uniforms and camouflage
for all mission locations.

• Every Specialist can be unlocked in more than one campaign mission,
so if a player does not succeed at first try, there is still a chance
to unlock the same Specialist at a later point in the campaign.

• Specialists already unlocked prior to installation of the mod are
unlocked within the mod as well (the mod uses the same database for
unlocked characters as the original game).

• Some Specialists' soldier classes are changed and adapted for a more
versatile team setup, i.e. to provide a broader choice of personnel as
well as weapons and equipment e.g. for demolitions objectives.

• Campaign missions are re-scripted to provide a more demanding game
experience with a maximum of realism and complete nonlinearity (which
also means that original scripted events are removed for the sake of
replayability / non-predictability and realism), as well as adjusted
for unified look'n'feel, e.g. objective triggers and response messages
are consistent throughout. Additionally, any errors and glitches in
the game's original missions have been fixed.

• Participation in campaign missions no longer results in additional
combat points for individual soldiers, and no extra combat points are
given out in quick missions anymore, either. All soldier stats are
completely reworked for improved character abilities and AI behavior,
so the combat point system would no longer have any effect.

• All missions, as well as single and co-operastive multiplayer game
types now feature a rating system to assess your tactical performance.
Its multifaceted percentage-based score takes various aspects of your
mission execution into account (completed objectives, team health and
survival, stealth / detection by enemies), thus providing additional
replayability through the incentive to maximize each score component.

• Both missions and game types feature sequential auto-saving of game
progress throughout single player gameplay, to save players from the
immersion-breaking practice of spamming the quick-save key.

• The in-game movie sequence is adapted for the new trilogy campaign
(and the final campaign victory movie features a little bonus clip).

• All in-game movies have been re-cut and re-encoded with corrected
common widescreen aspect ratio for an overall more unified look.

• Intro and / or outro cinematics are added to all missions depending
on mission circumstances, i.e. if the briefing context calls for or
allows insertion and / or extraction by e.g. boat, helicopter, etc.

• In-game text is corrected with proper English title capitalization
and modified for homogeneous sentence spacing, as well as a much more
consistent wording style.

• Difficulty tiers and IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) settings have been
renamed to underline their significant effect on simulation realism.

• Maps and missions are renamed and reordered for a more consistent
naming convention and to provide logical sequence for single and in
multiplayer mode. The map sequence is the same for all game types,
both single and multiplayer, and maps have the same numbering as
their corresponding missions.

• Single missions outside of the campaign are in a shuffled order by
default to provide varying environments for all map sequence options.

• An abundance of new maps, missions, and game types are added for
both single and multi-player to maximize variation and replayability.

• All game types for both single and multi-player games are completely
re-scripted for improved gameplay and replayability, and to provide
ideal compatibility with the mod's wide range of map sizes - from its
smallest CQB locations up to its vast long range outdoor scenarios.

• Among the new game types is Black Ops, a random mission generator
representing classified military operations with countless possible
combinations of mission objectives. The Black Ops game type takes the
game's scripting capability to its absolute limit to provide realistic
random mission parameters for infinite replayability.

• All missions and maps are unlocked for single player quick missions
by default, to allow easy access to the full variety of the game.

• All maps feature completely reworked map scripting that makes them
available in all single and multiplayer game types. Every map script
is also modified to allow an increased number of enemies and a greater
variety of enemy locations in all game types.

• Many maps feature newly created UI elements like snapshots, briefing
world maps, command maps, and command map briefing images, as well as
mission briefing text.

• All UI elements like menus, PDA, loading screens, HUD including the
command map interface, mouse pointer, credits screens, etc. are fully
redesigned for a fresh game look that not only offers an updated
appearance while staying close to the base game's unique visual style,
but also offers several usability and functionality improvements.

• The command map interface is modified to display all other human and
computer team members with authentic military rank insignia next to
their names. The player's character is identified as Captain, other
human players as Master Sergeants, and computer players as Sergeants.

• All command maps are recreated to feature a more homogeneous design
and tactical grid coordinates that facilitate strategic team play.

• As all Ubi.com online services have been shut down by Ubisoft, the
"Play on Ubi.com" option for online multiplayer is removed from the
game's interface. You can still play online multiplayer via (manual)
direct IP connection or through popular third-party gaming networks
like GameRanger (please see the LOCAL & ONLINE MULTIPLAYER section of
this document for details).

• Multiplayer server setup now allows selecting the availability of
both equipment and military units through restriction sets, so the
"AVAILABLE KITS" option is renamed to "CONFIGURATION" to reflect its
influence on available military units as well as their equipment.

• New military units are made available as multiplayer characters to
improve balancing between teams through competitive camouflage on all
types of map terrain.

• Further available multiplayer units are U.S. Army 1st Special Forces
Operational Detachment Delta (1st SFOD-D) a.k.a. "Delta Force", German
Bundeswehr Kommando Spezialkraefte (KSK), British Army 22nd Special
Air Service (SAS) Regiment, and U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development
Group (NSWDG), a.k.a. "DEVGRU" or "SEAL Team Six".

• All multiplayer teams feature a new marksman character in the sniper
class with standard uniform (woodland, desert, and jungle) for better
visual integration into teams and for urban environments.

• New multiplayer restrictions / configurations feature more authentic
compilations of equipment based on both individual soldier class and
selected military unit, which means that e.g. Delta Force demolitions
experts have a different range of weapons and equipment available than
Navy SEALs of the same soldier class.

• Original multiplayer restrictions are renamed and labeled "Legacy"
to be easily discernible from the new restrictions system. They offer
team and equipment selections more closely based on the original game,
yet are significantly updated / expanded.

• Several aspects of the UI are changed for ease of use and improved
functionality, e.g. to fully display longer names of maps, missions,
game saves, game types, multiplayer restriction sets, etc.

• Many interface strings are adjusted to streamline miscellaneous UI
elements and to reflect a variety of changes introduced by the mod,
e.g. the existence of anti-armor weapons other than the M136 and their
availability outside of the demolitions soldier class, etc.

• The equipment selection screens are adjusted to correctly display
up to 4-digit kit numbers and slightly longer weapon names. It is now
possible to quickly browse kits by click-and-holding selector arrows.

• All equipment outline textures for equipment selection screens were
completely reworked to reflect weapons and their attachments with more
detail. Additionally, all weapons with magnifying optics are marked
with crosshairs symbols, and all grenade launchers, antitank weapons,
shotguns, and demo charges are identified by corresponding symbols.

• All used files have been reviewed one-by-one for possible conflicts
with any other files in the mod, the original game and both official
expansion packs, and - if necessary - adjusted, to ensure the perfect
compatibility of all components.

• Many other small technical and cosmetic fixes and improvements are
implemented to achieve the best possible gaming experience.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Thanks, Rocky - and all you guys - for the warm welcome! This is indeed my pleasure and I hope you all enjoy the mod! I "moved Christmas" a bit so there is plenty of time for the (admittedly massive) download, but nobody forces you to unwrap the present now - feel free to wait until the 24th.

Everyone is of course invited to post any feedback here and discuss the mod in general!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

dld, congrats again Apex'..the presentation is nice..have not played a mission yert though just had a good look around the folder and did open the game...I like the unit stuff in the PDA...good for a Quick Mission mod..

as I'm busy with another large mod ay this time I'll have to wait awhile on playing through any for now...

BTW - the dl is not bad at all.I started it and went to take care of a few minor chores, came back and it was almost finished - this at 308 Kbps..

Link to post

Share on other sites

lesterribles, I am unable to reproduce your issue. Every quick mission I try saves just fine - the same for the campaign missions. Quick-save and normal saving both work without any problems here, so please provide us with more information.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Wow... And you did ALL this all by yourself (except modeling weapons)? Balancing hundreds of weapons, balancing MANY more kits, bug fixes, realism enhancements, optic reticles, reworked sounds, video editing, interface modification, effects reworked, new mission environments, etc. etc. etc... Wow.... I didn't realize how much work you put into this...

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Downloaded this last night, read the readme, this is honestly an inspiration man -- i'm as negative and whiny as hell about the gr community in general but it seems like you've really done something with merit. Almost makes me want to find time to make some real mods for Ghost Recon, seeing as it's one of my favorite games and i've never made more than a little wounds patch. You're honestly a real example of how the gaming community should show interest in a title, way to go man.

The mod plays excellently, way better than any compilations i've played before it. It comes across very coherent and cohesive, as if all of this content was made originally to fit together. Weapons are all balanced great, there's none of the awkwardness normally associated with compilations where half the guns are balanced entirely differently. It's great to have a single mod full of content i can point new people i introduce to GR to, too.